One Last Step by Sarah Sutton (free e books to read TXT) 📗

those things were in my house.” His voice now shook slightly.

Tara picked the wallet up again. “James, we know you met these people,” she said shaking the wallet in her hand while she spoke. “You were spotted at the info center, speaking with two of them.”

His face turned a deep shade of red.

“Who told you that,” he barked back, as he violently jolted his body forward, like a threatened dog, until his handcuffs clanked the rails of his hospital bed.

Tara ignored his question. “We also know you were at the trail too recently, when two younger girls went missing,” she added. “One of them owned this camera that you happened to have in your home but don’t seem to have any recollection of.”

He clenched his teeth, as his face grew redder. He’s just about to boil over, Tara thought.

“Don’t you see why it’s a bit hard for me to believe that you don’t know anything?” She waited for a response, but one didn’t come. “Did you murder these people?” she finally asked.

“No!” he finally blurted. “I don’t know! I don’t remember!”

“What do you mean you don’t remember?”

“I remember the wallets,” he said, trying to contain his emotion. “I stole them, okay?…At the info center. They put their bags down while they used the bathroom and I just took them.” He then looked up at Tara with watery eyes. “But I honestly don’t even remember taking that camera.”

Tara couldn’t tell if he was telling the truth. He was so unpredictable and she couldn’t quite tell if it was all an act. But there was one more piece of evidence she needed to show him—she needed to see his reaction—and she reached into the evidence bag one last time, grabbing hold of a compass.

“Does this look familiar to you?” she asked.

He looked up and studied what Tara held.

“No, I’ve never seen that before,” he said with a furrowed brow as he gained composure and wiped a tear from under his eye. “I don’t think I have.”

Tara rolled her eyes. “James, you better have something more to say than you don’t remember, or we’re going to sit here all night,” she said, now raising her voice.

“I swear!” he yelled. “Something’s wrong with me!” His voice was now shaking uncontrollably as he tried to maintain his composure.

“What do you mean something’s wrong with you?” Tara asked.

“I can’t remember anything,” he added with his eyes tightly shut as he shook his head. He started to sob uncontrollably.

“So what you’re telling me is that you aren’t sure if you killed these people?”

James looked up at the ceiling, his body now shaking with each sob until he opened his mouth to speak.

“I don’t know what I’m capable of,” he added before the weight of his words sank in, pushing him into an uncontrollable cry.

***

Tara and Warren stepped out into the hallway of the hospital. But just when the door closed, their eyes darted down the hall to where Sheriff Brady was briskly walking toward them with a short, middle-aged man that Tara had never seen before.

“So, how did it go?” she asked, when close enough.

She stood in front of them with an unwavering smile, revealing that she knew something that they didn’t yet. She quickly introduced them to the man standing next to her—the station’s psychiatrist.

Tara knew that the sheriff wanted James Hayden to be who they have been looking for all along. She wanted this to be over, as did Tara, and while James Hayden didn’t deny the allegations, Tara couldn’t help but wonder if he really did only steal the wallets and the camera, and all the other objects they found collected in his home. When he finally admitted to stealing, it was the first time Tara saw a flicker of genuineness as if he were telling the truth.

“Well,” Tara began, “he didn’t admit it, but he didn’t deny it either.”

Warren nodded. “There’s a good possibility it’s him though,” he chimed in. “Don’t you agree?” he asked Tara.

“Well, I—” Tara began, but she still wasn’t quite sure.

She needed more evidence to feel confident saying that she too knew it was him. The sheriff could sense Tara’s flicker of doubt and before she could even finish saying that she wasn’t too sure, Sheriff Brady spoke.

“My officers dug through that box of pills you found,” she began. “It looks like he was prescribed anti-psychotics.” She continued to explain that they had found bottles with his name on the labels. One of them, prescribed a couple weeks ago, had barely been touched, leading them to believe he wasn’t taking them.

“Would that cause a lapse in memory?” Tara asked, curious if maybe he was telling the truth when he said he didn’t remember.

Brady looked toward the psychiatrist who then shrugged.

“Not necessarily,” he confirmed. “But if he was taking any of the narcotics that were found in that box, that could potentially cause a lapse in memory, especially while withdrawing from anti-psychotics.”

Tara shared a quick glance with Warren. It certainly explained the lapse in memory, leading Tara to believe that maybe he wasn’t lying after all.

“Maybe he was telling the truth then,” Tara added.

But the sheriff just shook her head, before reiterating that he had a possible murder weapon and the victims’ belongings. They had enough to convict him.

“His DNA was all over the wallet and camera and crossbow,” she added and then leaned in a bit closer. “Plus, I just spoke to forensics. Turns out the crossbow found in his home wasn’t the same brand as the arrow found in the victim, but she said it’s possible that the crossbow could’ve been used to shoot it based on the angle and speed at which the victim was hit.”

Warren looked over at Tara wide-eyed and she could see him growing more certain that James Hayden was their man. It shocked Tara too, and she was sure now that they had enough to convict him. But there was still a doubt that lingered in Tara’s mind because without bodies,